Transcription

• Brittani Riddle

  How tariffs could affect your labs and the latest in breast cancer research, coming up next on the Path News Network. This is the Path News Network Daily Edition, powered by the College of American Pathologists. Today is Tuesday, October 21st. I'm Brittani Riddle with the latest news. Medical labs across the country are seeing price increases for laboratory equipment and medical supplies since the Trump administration announced new tariffs in May. Pathologists are concerned that labs may not be able to absorb the increases. Eventually, this may limit access to care, especially in underserved communities. In a written response, the CAP has urged the Trump administration to exempt medical devices from the tariffs so diagnostic services remain accessible and uninterrupted. Read the CAP's full comments in today's edition of Advocacy News. CAP members, make your voices heard on tariffs and other issues affecting pathologists and patients, such as Medicare reimbursements, gene patents, and labor workforce shortages. Use the CAP's Action Center to send an Action Alert today on these issues directly to Congress. It's a simple and easy way to urge Congress to protect pathology. Looking to sharpen your skills in body fluid analysis? Purchase your copy of The Color Atlas of Body Fluids by Dr. Eric F. Glassy. The second edition features over 1,200 high-res images, 360 illustrations, and 70 photo galleries for the visual clarity you need for fast, confident diagnosis. Finally, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Joining me today to discuss the latest research is Dr. Matthew Hanna. chair of the CAP's Artificial Intelligence Committee. Dr. Hanna, welcome to the PATH News Network. What are the latest developments in breast cancer research for pathologists?

• Dr. Matthew Hanna

  In pathology, and specifically in breast pathology, we've historically had great interest in understanding morphology and grade and stage of disease, but we're moving towards a much more digital environment that's enabling a lot of... Use of that pixel data to be translated into computational biomarkers, where we can now interrogate in a much more quantitative way, different cell types, different spatial arrangements, and be able to infer patient responses or patient outcomes in ways which we didn't have that level of data before.

• Brittani Riddle

  You mentioned digital technology. How will the advancement of AI and digital pathology improve breast cancer research and treatment?

• Dr. Matthew Hanna

  There are several different ways that digital can really help patients either getting access to care or getting the right diagnosis for the right patient at the right time. And so we can have pathologists who may be in more rural areas, more community centers, who may not have that much experience with maybe some more of the rare diseases, rare tumor types, be able to access experts or pathologists who have seen that example of breast cancer on a daily basis and be able to get an expert consult. Taking that one step further, we can now look at different clinical decision support tools that can be used by pathologists in a way to help screen or triage patient cases. So that way, pathologists can prioritize their cases for the day where if there is a patient who unfortunately has something suspicious that an AI site. They can go and look at that sooner, get ancillary lab testing done sooner, and that way the patients can be having the report sooner. And it streamlines a lot of that process from an overall turnaround time standpoint.

• Brittani Riddle

  The American Cancer Society's 2025 report shows that cancer rates in women under the age of 50 have jumped by nearly 20 percent. From your perspective, What trends or underlining factors could be contributing to the increase?

• Dr. Matthew Hanna

  I think one of the major ones is that increased awareness and increased education around the breast cancer disease and diagnostic process where we're having many younger patients coming to have screening who maybe historically weren't having their screening or taking awareness of all of the either genetic factors that are at play and going to get care earlier. So I think that incidence is, you know, part of that incidence is being driven by just increased awareness, education, and actual patients who are going to get their imaging, going to their primary care physicians to get that initial screening. And then some percentage of those are, you know, needing follow-up for... something suspicious that might have been found.

• Brittani Riddle

  Any other closing thoughts as we wrap up Breast Cancer Awareness Month?

• Dr. Matthew Hanna

  I just want to try to communicate that breast cancer is very common, as we mentioned. You know, it is one out of eight women, but it's very often treatable. And there is such a spectrum of diseases, whether it's something closer to the benign or normal realm of the spectrum versus an atypical diagnosis or something that is cancer, but it's not. it's not invasive yet, so it's sort of a precancerous disease. All the way through invasive cancer, even metastatic cancer, there's a wide spectrum of being diagnosed with quote-unquote breast cancer and each one of those means something a little bit different than the other. And so it's very often treatable, but obviously to go seek care and try to get as much of a personalized care as you can with that multi-stakeholder team. So that way, again, you get the right diagnosis by using the right technology and tools at the right time and for the right patients. That way they can get the right care.

• Brittani Riddle

  Thank you again to my guest, Dr. Matthew Hanna, for joining me for today's edition. Find more on today's stories in the show notes and our member newsletters on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We're back tomorrow at 5 a.m. Eastern Time. I'm Brittani Riddle. Have a great day.